Tripartite Struggle over Kanauj

Tripartite Struggle

Since the accession of Harshavadhana or Harsha in 606 AD, Kanyakubja (the modern Kanauj in the state of Uttar Pradesh) was to be one of the largest and most prosperous cities of North India till the coming of Muslims. Not much is known about the kingdom of Kanauj after Harsha’s death in 647 AD resulting in a great confusion due to the absence of his heirs.

Kanyakubja came for a short period under the hands of an usurper, Arunasva who attacked Wang Xuance who had come to the court of Harsha as ambassador of the Chinese emperorTang Taizong. However, Wang Xuance, with the help of an army from Tibet and Nepal, succeeded in capturing Arunasva who was taken back to China to spend his days in attendance on the Tang Emperor.

About AD 730 we find a famous king named Yasovarman establishing a kingdom at Kanauj. His invasion of Gauda (Bengal) formed the subject of the Prakrit poem Gaudvadha (Slaying of the king of Bengal), composed by Vakapatiraja in the eighth century AD. After Yasovarman, three kings, namely Vijrayudha, Indrayudha and Chakrayudha, ruled over Kanauj between close of the eight century till the second decade of the ninth century. Talking advantage of the weakness of these Ayudha rulers and attracted by the immense strategic and economic potentialities of the kingdom of Kanauj, the Gurjara-Pratiharas of Bhinmal (Rajasthan), the Palas of Bengal and Bihar and the Rashtrakutas of the Manyakheta (Maharashtra) fought against each other with a view to having control over the area.

This tripartite struggle for Kanauj lingered for almost two centuries and ultimately ended in favour of the Gurjara-Pratihara ruler Nagabhata II who made the city the capital of the Gurjara-Pratihara kingdom, which ruled for nearly two centuries. Kanyakubja was plundered by Mahmud Ghazni who made seventeen raids on India between 1001 and 1027.

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